Foreword

Corinne Lennox and Matthew Waites

Let it be known: that in the period when the global LGBT¹ movement faced its most extreme challenges from the rise of homophobia in many regions, that among all those who rose to the challenges of transnational North/South partnerships between academics and activists, the Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights project (Envisioning) gave leadership.

From its inception Envisioning was unique and as creative as it was political. The project’s name expressed its visionary concept and strength of purpose, while also signifying its highly original combination of participatory action research and documentary filmmaking with more conventional social and legal research. Envisioning was founded in a period, beginning in 2011, which demanded ambitious thinking on a global scale to oppose a new tide of violence and prejudice. In particular, academics in the Global North faced the challenge of rising from their positions in ivory towers to meet, connect with, and support the activists and scholars of the Global South who were fighting for their lives and loved ones. The already-established activist researchers who led Envisioning moved quickly beyond words to action.

This volume presents learning and research from the project. It is a book for activists as much as for academics and will also interest those in governmental or non-governmental organisations (NGOs), policymakers and practitioners of many kinds. Above all, the book presents reports from some of the most fiercely fought battlegrounds of contemporary sexual politics, spearheaded by leading activists. Any activist in the realm of gender, sexuality and human rights can benefit from reading this; and it will be indispensable as a contribution to understanding developments on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) in the states covered, or at the United Nations. Similarly, the contents will provide specific source material for academics across many interdisciplinary fields and disciplines in terms of gender and sexuality studies; postcolonial, sociological, sociolegal, cultural and film studies; and the fields of politics and social policy.

We have been invited to provide this foreword as editors of an earlier volume to which several Envisioning members contributed: Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the Commonwealth: Struggles for Decriminalisation and Change (2013), which was also published by the School of Advanced Study, home of the Human Rights Consortium (HRC) at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICWS). Both volumes focus on states of the former British Empire, which are now in the Commonwealth, with an emphasis on challenging imperial criminalisations and power relations still shaped by colonialism. The earlier volume was published open access online, as well as in print, in order to provide a resource for activists worldwide; chapters have since been downloaded 45,000 times in more than 170 countries (as of the end of April 2018). This book is similarly being published open access and in print by the HRC/ICWS. In some ways, it may thus be considered a sister volume, and there are overlaps in the work of authors including Monica Tabengwa, Adrian Jjuuko, Nancy Nicol and Gary Kinsman, as well as in the coverage of states like Uganda. Indeed, Envisioning hosted and filmed a launch for our book in 2013, which can be viewed on video via its website (and also Envisioning’s website),² thus contributing enormously to its having reached wider publics. However, the Envisioning anthology emerges from a very distinct, far more extensive and ambitious project, and should be approached in its own right.

The Envisioning project involved work across selected states from the four regions represented in this book: Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean and North America. Although titled ‘LGBT’, the project was also concerned with exploring different societal understandings of sexuality and gender, not always encompassed by Western notions of SOGI. In its central focus on generating understandings from the knowledge and experiences of activists in the Global South, Envisioning thus embodied a transnational imaginary, seeking to address existing power relations forged by colonialism and capitalist economics, not by disconnecting but by forming new connections and collaborative, transformative partnerships in the co-production of knowledge. Crucially, the project emphasised the leadership of Global South partners within specific societies.

It is important to appreciate the Canadian origins of the project.³ Although sometimes perceived internationally as such, Canada has not been a liberal oasis (as asylum research in this volume shows), but it can nevertheless be suggested that, in the critical activist and intellectual milieu around Toronto from which the project sprang, there seems to be greater sensitivity to colonialism and decolonial politics than exists in the United Kingdom, at least (from where we write). Hence Envisioning’s emergence in Canada rather than in other Western states may perhaps be partly explained − in the long view − by referring to Canada’s experience of being a former colony, to the ongoing political claims of indigenous peoples which inspire political engagements, and to the continued embrace of the multiculturalism ethic, which is not a major feature in European states.

This volume contains the fruits of the many partnerships formed, combining contributions to represent and conclude the work done. Envisioning evolved centrally from the participatory action research approach, which is often lauded but rarely executed in such a complete and true fashion. This required a much longer project lifespan, which unfortunately is not often accommodated by conventional funding cycles. Yet the results of this approach have made Envisioning’s impact far greater than conventional, top-down scholarship. Research and activism were conceived as intertwined in complex ways, with researching often but not always oriented to political and normative goals shared in activist movements. Most of the researchers involved were themselves activists, often based in NGOs, rather than in university-based academic posts. Their work focuses particularly on documentation, recognising the urgency and educational power of recording the details of struggles both lost and won. This involved research encompassing data collection and analysis for movements to reflect on, including the writing that is presented here. Hence, many of the chapters here focus on the documentation task, recording events and citing extensive primary sources of evidence which include movement statements, newspaper reports and drafts of official legislation, while others provide more conceptually developed analyses. The chapters are bursting with the invaluable first-hand insights of activists at the cutting edge of social struggles, as they reflect on objectives and strategies, making this volume an essential reference point for those who are concerned with the global struggle for LGBT human rights and equality.

As already mentioned, the combination of research and writing about activists with their involvement in participatory documentary video filmmaking made Envisioning distinctive among transnational projects supporting LGBT people. At its heart was the strength of Nancy Nicol’s and Phyllis Waugh’s partnership. They travelled to locations of contestation, got to know local activists, and invited them into the process of documenting their movements through filmmaking. It was through such partnerships that Envisioning became firmly rooted, growing to enable numerous regional teams to branch out and flourish. Often − if not always − this seems to have borne fruit that came to nourish even some of the most stony grounds of religious bigotry, yielding seeds for potential future harvests, if cultivated. Indeed capacity enhancement, such as through skills training in filmmaking, was central. However, participants were also open to constructive questioning of the project’s own framings, as expressed in the chapter on Saint Lucia, and a simultaneous focus on mutual, reciprocal learning.

The number and range of films made by Envisioning across diverse contexts is highly impressive and, when viewed, their significance as social documents and activist tools immediately becomes apparent. We can all benefit from the fact that Envisioning has made public engagement such an important component of its activities, evidenced by the extensive documentation available on its website, and the efforts made to screen the films widely both to audiences directly affected by the topics and to those elsewhere who express solidarity. We are proud to have hosted English and Scottish premières (in London and Glasgow) in November 2015 for two of these − No Easy Walk to Freedom, from India; And Still We Rise, from Uganda − to bring Envisioning’s work to the UK. These events exemplified the way Envisioning gave Southern activist voices prominence in the North, with speakers including Arvind Narrain of Voices Against 377 in India, Richard Lusimbo of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), and Junic Wambya from Freedom and Roam Uganda.

Figure 2. Pride, Delhi, India, 28 November 2011. Photo credit: No Easy Walk to Freedom, Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights.

Perhaps And Still We Rise, made in collaboration with SMUG, will prove to be Envisioning’s most outstanding achievement in film. Activists were fully involved in the filmmaking, and the result is a documentary filled with emotion, life and the energy of resistance. Richard Lusimbo and Junic Wambya explained at the UK launches that the film had enabled those in the movement to tell their own true story for the first time. When this is viewed alongside the essential Ugandan activist research in this book, by Adrian Jjuuko and Fridah Mutesi, Richard Lusimbo and Austin Bryan, the project’s overall contribution to awareness in Uganda becomes even more impressive. Certainly the contributions in this volume are best appreciated alongside the films, of which many are immediately available online (see Nancy Nicol’s concluding chapter ‘Telling Our Stories: Envisioning participatory documentary’). It is remarkable and admirable that − as Nicol notes in that chapter − SMUG has submitted both the film And Still We Rise and the video interviews supported by the Envisioning project as evidence in the US Federal Court case against anti-gay extremist Scott Lively, who is accused of crimes against humanity.

A clear strength of Envisioning’s work, moving beyond efforts described in our earlier volume, is the increased attention it brings to gender identity issues and trans people’s experiences. Arvind Narrain’s India chapter at the beginning of this book explores a positive recent legal ruling for recognition of a third gender, and uses this to contextualise a negative 2013 Supreme Court ruling which reaffirmed criminalisation of much same-sex sexual behaviour. The attention to trans experiences is particularly valuable, for example, in Pere DeRoy and Namela Baynes Henry’s chapter on Guyana, which discusses distinctive law in the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act 1893 that specifically outlaws cross-dressing (‘wearing of female attire by a man, wearing of male attire by a woman’), and a related case. It is extremely important to bring this form of explicit criminalisation of cross-dressing and its recent deployment to light internationally, illustrating the fact that the problems associated with criminalisations are certainly not restricted to sexual behaviour alone. DeRoy and Henry highlight a punitive measure that could be replicated if not challenged.

Another important and original structural feature of the Envisioning project and this volume is the focus on connecting struggles in a range of Global South contexts with difficulties over asylum, migration and access to citizenship in the Global North – particularly in Canada. This feature of Envisioning’s work certainly deserves praise, in a context of ongoing exclusionary practices − such efforts are described in chapters by Gary Kinsman, and Nick J. Mulé and Kathleen Gamble. This linkage demonstrates a transnational and reflective imaginary built into the project’s design, whereby the implications of human rights abuses worldwide were addressed back to the privileged Canadian state, demanding interconnected learning.

It is essential, more generally, to grasp Envisioning’s central and distinctive methodological focus on sites of current contestation. That is, Envisioning specifically selected sites of contestation for participation and engagement, yielding a project which has truly been operating at the frontlines of activism and conflict, in contexts such as Uganda, Kenya, India and Belize. This made the research particularly difficult to conduct, record and complete, yet has resulted in great benefits. The project’s scope also allows the interactive effects between litigation and social mobilisation as forms of resistance to be seen. The chapters show that these approaches to activism exist on a continuum, with social mobilisation buttressing attempts to use the law, and maintaining momentum when adversaries have successfully challenged judicial decisions.

Readers familiar with global LGBT activist debates, and the contexts where human rights struggles have been most intense will quickly appreciate the originality and value of the contributions here. One chapter that stands out for its perspective on global institutions and discourses, and is of clear importance for a wide readership, is ‘The rise of SOGI: human rights for LGBT people at the United Nations’, by Kim Vance, Nick J. Mulé, Maryam Khan and Cameron McKenzie. It provides an invaluable chronology of civil society engagements and changes in the positions of UN institutions and presents unique interview data from 12 UN officials, also drawing on observation data and state voting records to develop a distinctive analysis of the present global institutional context. This offers insights for current struggles to move forward, with the mandate of the UN Independent Expert (created by the Human Rights Council in June 2016) to monitor ‘violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity’, but which numerous states seek to remove.

More generally in the volume is collected the work of many inspiring individuals who set the pace and direction of contemporary activism. For example, Arvind Narrain is a leading queer human rights activist, lawyer and scholar from India, who has played a pivotal role in legal cases; Adrian Jjuuko has been similarly pivotal in cases in Uganda as a human rights lawyer and activist; and leading African LGBT+ activist Monica Tabengwa is executive director of Pan Africa ILGA (a regional body within ILGA: the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association). Jjuuko and Tabengwa offer an authoritative survey of forms of expanded criminalisation by states across the African continent. This is also of value for comparing the practices of various European colonialisms, particularly when combined with the astute strategic reflections in African contexts offered by Monica Mbaru, Monica Tabengwa and Kim Vance and it raises concerns about the limits of strategies focused on the courts. Adrian Jjuuko and Fridah Mutesi, and Richard Lusimbo and Austin Bryan, also provide activist reports from the coalface in Uganda, which − in light of the leading activist roles of Jjuuko, Mutesi and Lusimbo − seem likely to stand as the most detailed and authoritative first-hand narratives of LGBT activist organising in Uganda. Particularly when read together, these chapters represent a powerful documentation embodying collective memory of struggle and resistance.

Caleb Orozco, who formed and led the United Belize Advocacy Movement (UNIBAM), provides a substantial account of that movement’s struggles including his own legal case for decriminalisation of same-sex sexual behaviour. This is a case which has vital implications in Latin America and the Caribbean region, and has been reported and debated in global institutional contexts. Orozco has emerged as a groundbreaker in his own society, while in the process, as he reports, suffering many forms of abuse including an assault. It is thus a credit to both himself and to Envisioning that he has been able to find a way to narrate and chronicle his autobiographical history, particularly valuable because it provides first-hand knowledge of strategic choices made, and threats experienced, which only such a pioneer can pass on. He has won global recognition for his leadership including being the 2017 recipient of the David Kato Vision and Voice Award.

The volume also brings to the fore further new research and documentation from contexts less familiar to many international readers concerned with sexualities and genders outside heterosexual norms. For example, it includes significant original work from Guyana, by Pere DeRoy and Namela Baynes Henry, and concerning Saint Lucia by Amar Wahab. In the latter, Wahab uses rich data to explore how queer Saint Lucian voices challenge the limits of intelligibility of the Western gaze to explore how wider contexts of economic globalisation link to social vulnerability, and the consequent effects of poverty on people’s lives. This discussion demonstrates a deepening critical analysis of developments, advancing current postcolonial theorisations in relation to economic markets, and greatly assists international readers in disaggregating Caribbean states to understand their specific national histories and trajectories.

This brings us to another valuable feature of Envisioning’s work, which is the combining of an insistent focus not only on racism, imperialism, colonialism and their ongoing effects, with attention to the effects of capitalism, specifically in the present era of neoliberalism. Envisioning was concerned to integrate neoliberalism explicitly into its analysis from the outset. Its guiding principles committed researchers to an integrated anti-oppression analysis, and a critical perspective on globalisation and neoliberalism − as Nancy Nicol explains in her opening chapter. The value of such an approach perhaps emerges most clearly in Wahab’s contribution on Saint Lucia, which shows the need to understand specific national governmental strategies with reference to the relationships between national and transnational economies. While a mainstream understanding of neoliberalism would associate it with free markets in goods and in persons, an Envisioning author like Kinsman tends to associate neoliberalism with ‘tightening borders in the north’, suggesting scope for more development of analyses based on specific conceptions. Envisioning’s work points in the right direction and keeps the issue in view.

Meanwhile, the chapters from Kenya raise potent questions for those participating in and developing analysis of current movements for change, including how those concerned with sexuality and gender relate to opposing religious movements or wider human rights alliances. Jane Wothaya Thirikwa shows how transnational organised religion plays a crucial part, for example through the work of the American Centre for Law and Justice, and Family Watch International which now have offices in Kenya as well, further promoting prejudice. Religious discourses interplay with health knowledge claims and the arguments of politicians. Furthermore, the chapter by Guillit Amakobe, Kat Dearham and Po Likimani presents a compelling conversation over how funding structures and associated rights-based approaches shape the form of organising. In this instance the community-based group Jinsiangu − for intersex, transgender and gender non-conforming people − has reportedly been forced to sacrifice a participatory focus on psychosocial support in order to meet structural requirements for donor funding. A need for deepening critical intersectional analysis and politics is suggested. This raises issues that will resonate widely in activist debates, and is a resource for taking forward these debates about the politics, effects and governmentality of international funding, and the trends of closing space for civil society in general.

Overall, perhaps one of the most distinctive characteristics of the Envisioning research, in all its diversity and complexity, is the sense of interconnections between multiple levels of societies and of social analysis – with attention to local, national, regional and global levels, each with their own features including social norms, institutions and legal practices. In this volume the Envisioning team contribute towards understanding at all of these levels, with central space for and valuation of grassroots insights and conversations. The visionary politics of transnational collaboration and mutual learning that the project team espoused is well-represented, and stands as an inspiration for all committed to envisioning, and working for, a better future.

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1 We use the frame ‘LGBT’ − lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (or trans) – to be consistent with the acronym used by Envisioning LGBT Human Rights, both for their project and throughout this volume. However readers should be aware that this terminology has been contested for good reasons and it is usually expanded/clarified to include such abbreviations as I (intersex), Q (queer) and + (to indicate an open-ended categorisation). Please see Nancy Nicol’s ‘Note on terminology’ at the start of her opening chapter.

2 See http://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/publications/house-publications/lgbt-rights-commonwealth or http://envisioninglgbt.blogspot.com/p/conferences.html (both accessed 9 Apr. 2018).

3 Funding for the project was granted under the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Notably, our Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the Commonwealth (2013) volume also benefited from Canadian funding in the form of a small Canadian Embassy (in London) grant.